The Pacem in Maribus 2003 conference was held on 27 – 31 October 2003 at the National Academy of Sciences in Kiev, Ukraine. Dr Kim Prochazka, director of IOI-SA, attended the 30th Pacem in Maribus conference. She also attended various IOI business meetings in Kiev before the conference.

IOI-SA assisted in raising awareness and the advertising of PIM2003 in various ways. This included distribution of conference brochures, placing the relevant information on both the IOI and IOI-SA websites, adding the PIM2003 website URL to the e-mail signatures of its’ staff members, and placing a conference advertisement on the front page of the IOI-SA’s quarterly newsletter. In addition, the institute prepared a detailed report on the Pacem in Maribus 2002 conference held in Cape Town in December 2002, advising both the hosts of PIM2003, IOI-Ukraine, and IOI Headquarters of the lessons learned from PIM2002.

This year the conference theme was “A year after Johannesburg. Ocean governance and sustainable development: Ocean and Coasts –a glimpse into the future.” One of the aims of this particular conference was to follow up on the World Summit on Sustainable Development of 2002 and the third World Water Forum of 2003.

The topics that were covered are as follows:

1. Emerging environmental issues and human health
2. The problems of the coastal and ocean protection and integrated management
3. Living and non-living resources
4. Climate change. Disaster preparedness
5. Safety and security of the human activities at sea
6. Problems of semi-closed and closed seas
7. Education and training in ocean-related field

The conference once again highlighted the need for responsible use of the ocean and its resources, while allowing other much needed activities to continue that would for e.g. promote economic growth around the world. The outputs of the conference include a Declaration and a list of recommendations.

    PIM 2003                              p.1
       Regional Meeting brings WIO-LaB
          Project closer to implementation  p.2
    GISP                                      p.3
    Staff profile: Neil Griffin         p.4
     IOI-SA 2003 projects             p.5
       Upcoming conferences          p.6
     Upcoming workshops            p.6
    Did You Know?                     p.6
      

REGIONAL MEETING BRINGS WIO-LAB PROJECT CLOSER TO IMPLEMENTATION

A meeting of experts from Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa and Tanzania was held in Maputo from 1-3 December 2003, to finalise an Implementation Plan for the Western Indian Ocean Land-based Activities (WIO-LaB) Project. The meeting was jointly organised by the Coordination Office of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (UNEP/GPA) in association with the UNEP Secretariat for the Nairobi Convention and the UNESCO Chair of Marine Sciences and Oceanography based at Eduardo Mondlane University.

The WIO-LaB Project, which represents a strong partnership between the participating countries, the Norwegian government, UNEP, and the Global Environment Facility, focuses on addressing land-based sources of pollution that have adverse impacts on the region’s rivers, estuaries and coastal waters, as well as their biological resources. Its principal human beneficiaries are the users of freshwater, marine, and coastal water resources, and those whose livelihood depend on the rivers, coastal wetlands, the mangroves, beaches, reefs, seagrasses, and seas.

Major Objectives of WIO-LaB:

Reduce stress to the ecosystem by improving water and sediment quality; Strengthen regional legal basis for preventing land-based sources of pollution through the GPA; Develop regional capacity and strengthen institutions for sustainable, less polluting development

The project’s implementation plan has been compiled in such a way so as to harmonise current GEF funded activities and GPA initiatives in the Eastern African Region. It encompasses over 70 concrete activities aimed at achieving the project’s major objectives, and will generate, amongst others:

1. A Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis outlining priority environmental hotspots, and sensitive environments
2. A Strategic Action Plan focused on policy/legal/ institutional reform
3. National Programmes of Action to tackle problems at a state level
4. A negotiated land-based activities protocol for addition to the Nairobi Convention and
5. A strengthened Nairobi Convention Secretariat

Implementation of the WIO-LaB Project is envisaged to begin as early as April 2004. The activities will be carried out by a series of national consultants and national organisations, including educational, research, governmental, NGO, and so on. This network will work closely through the National Focal Point of the Nairobi Convention, based in each country.

To request a copy of the project’s implementation plan, contact Mr. Dixon Waruinge at the Nairobi Convention Office:
Tel. +254-20-62 2025
Fax +254 20 624618.
News pertaining to the project will also be distributed via IOI-SA’s SEA-WASTE Network: http://seawaste.uwc.ac.za.

GLOBAL INVASIVE SPECIES PROGRAMME

In November 2003 IOI-SA was contracted to develop and maintain the web portal of the Global Invasive Species Programme or GISP. GISP was established in 1997 to address global threats caused by Invasive Alien Species (IAS), and to provide support to the implementation the Convention on Biological Diversity. GISP works through its partner organizations that include SCOPE, ISSG of the ICUN and CAB International. GISP has entered its seconds phase of development and moved its secretariate to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens in Cape Town.

IOI-SA will help GISP to establish a state of the art clearing house on the Internet for information on invasive alien species at http://www.gisp.org. At the site researchers, policy makers and interested members of the public will be able to find a host of information about invasive alien species which is constantly kept up to date. In particular there are interesting news and events items such as conferences or workshops, a searchable database of links to websites and web-databases specializing in invasive alien species, and a soon to be developed interactive map of information for all the countries of the world. As far as possible the map will contain standardized information for each country e.g. interesting case studies, IAS research being done, government policies and contact details for organization and government departments dealing with the issue.

STAFF PROFILE: Neil Griffin

Neil Griffin is a resource developer and programmer at the International Ocean Institute of South Africa. He has been a part of the IOI-SA team since March 2003 and does not regret accepting the position for various reasons, i.e. because IOI-SA has a community outreach aspect, because he has always had an interest in using computers to make biological data available to people and IOI-SA provides him with the opportunity to do so and because working at this company allows him to find new ‘things’ and create new and exciting ‘things’.

Neil’s job basically involves working on quite a number of projects. He designs backend programs for the Seaweed Africa website, i.e. a massive database system which is used to store seaweed information including aquacultural, ecological, commercial and technological data and at present the team of developers are working on developing a front end to the Algaebase database, which is a database of comprehensive information on algae that includes terrestrial, marine and freshwater organisms. He is also working on a Gracilaria Mariculture project. This is a project that involves training and supporting a community or group of people in St. Helena in planting seaweed, diving, techniques of Gracilaria Mariculture, teaching them small business management skills and just offering the St. Helena community their overall support.

Neil hails from Phalaborwa, but admits loving Cape Town more than his own ‘home town’!! He attended St. Martin’s High School in Johannesburg, then furthered his studies at Wits University where he completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Botany and Zoology. He then continued his studies at Rhodes University where he did his Bachelor of Science Honors in Botany and majored in Phycology and Ecology… not to mention that he majored with cum laude in these subjects!! Neil continued studying at the University of Natal where he completed his masters in Phycology…..once again with cum laude!! While studying, Neil worked at Wits rural vicinity, i.e. a research facility attached to Wits university and situated on an old game farm near The Kruger National Park.His job involved researching energy use by local communities focusing on their use of wood as a fuel. While doing his PhD, he worked as a researcher where his job involved the isolation and management of diatom cultures.

He then worked a company at which they grew plants for community upliftment in degraded and polluted wetlands. He moved on to a the National Botanical Institute at which his job involved data management and website designs. Thereafter he moved on to Irvian and Johnson at which he did research for Abalone farms.

Besides being so hardworking and committed to his education, Neil enjoys photography and plays the base guitar. He also loves Chinese and Italian foods and simply enjoys snorkeling. Neil seems to be someone with a very interesting personality and he has a great sense of humor. He loves his studies and with so many qualifications and his dedication to his job, IOI-SA is privileged to have him as part of their team.

PROJECTS AT IOI-SA FOR 2003 

Projects are listed below the relevant programmes they belong to:

1. EDUCATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
1. Train-Sea-Coast
2. SACoast
3. Regional Fisheries Information Systems
4. IOI-Virtual University (IOI-VU)
5. Kewl
6. Southern African Development Community (SADC) Monitoring Control & Surveillance (MCS) Course Development
2. BIODIVERSITY & INFORMATICS (formerly BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION & ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT)
1. Seawaste
2. Seaweed Africa Database
3. Ukuvuka
4. Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP)
5. ARUP Robben Island
6. African Marine Biodiversity
7. Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)
8. Clinid Ecosystematics
9. Conservation Planning Unit (CPU)
3. PEOPLE, OCEANS & COASTS
1. Coastal Off-road Vehicles
2. Seaweed Mariculture
3. Kenyan Seaweeds
4. Worms
5. African Leadership Seminar
6. IOI Women and the Sea
7. Public Awareness Campaign
4. ONLINE SERVICES

UPCOMING CONFERENCES 

20TH Congress Of The Phycological Society Of Southern Africa
28-30 January 2004
The School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Conference Website: http://www.pssa2004.wits.ac.za

XIth International Conference on Harmful Algae
15-19 November 2004
This conference will be held under the auspices of the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae (ISSHA) and the Phycological Society of Southern Africa (PSSA) Conference Website: http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/pssa/hab2004/index.htm

Oceanology International 2004
March 16-19 2004
Excel, London, UK

The XVIII International Seaweed Symposium
20-25 June, 2004; Bergen, Norway.
Contact: Project Manager Kari Holmedal at iss2004@plus-convention.no

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS 

A Workshop on Marine Pollution Prevention and Environmental Management in Ports in Eastern and Southern Africa will be held from 26 to 30 April 2004 in Mombasa (Kenya).

DID YOU KNOW? About Water Pollution

1. Water pollution occurs when a body of water is adversely affected due to the addition of large amounts of materials to the water. When it is unfit for its intended use, water is considered polluted.
2. Two types of water pollutants exist: point source and non-point source.
   
   Point sources of pollution occur when harmful substances are emitted directly into a body of water, for example, an oil spill.
   
   A non-point source delivers pollutants indirectly through environmental changes. An example of this type of water pollution is when fertilizer from a field is carried into a stream by rain, in the form of run-off, which in turn affects aquatic life.
   
   Non-point sources are much more difficult to control and accounts for a majority of the contaminants in streams and lakes.
3. Many causes of pollution including sewage and fertilizers contain nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates. In excess levels, nutrients over stimulate the growth of aquatic plants and algae. Excessive growth of these types of organisms consequently clogs our waterways, use up dissolved oxygen as they decompose, and block light to deeper waters.
4. River traffic may cause as much air pollution as road traffic. Pollution pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides produced by commercial ships can equal those caused by a freeway of traffic.

IOI-SA:  Mission statement

The International Ocean Institute, Southern Africa (IOI-SA) promotes the peaceful and sustainable use of ocean space and resources in a southern African context by facilitating sustainable livelihoods of coastal people through awareness creation, education, information dissemination, research, and community initiatives.

Our goals include: Environment research, awareness,Sustainable livelihoods supporting research, community initiatives, mariculture, Awareness - computer technology, education, training, capacity-building IOI-SA achieves its goals through its 4 programmes: - Education through Technology, - People, Oceans and Coasts, - Biodiversity,Conservation & Environmental Assessment - IOI-SA Online Services Contact: The Secretary:Tanya Potts Tel: +27 21 959 2594 Fax: +27 21 959 1213 Email:tpotts@uwc.ac.za

Enquiries: Editors: Tanya Potts Tel. +27 21 959 2594 tpotts@uwc.ac.za Lucille Oliphant Tel. +27 21 959 2075 Deidre Bester Tel. +27 21 959 3782 dbester@uwc.ac.za Graphic Design: Jody Munnik Tel. +27 21 959 2074 jmunnik@uwc.ac.za